Lawmakers demand Department of Transportation force airlines to issue cash refunds or extend pandemic-related flight credits

Senators Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal and Representatives Jesús G. "Chuy" García and Steve Cohen are calling on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to force the nation's airlines to either issue cash refunds for canceled flights or extend pandemic-related flight credits indefinitely. The lawmakers say denying customers cash refunds during the pandemic and instead only providing them with flight credits that will soon expire is an "unfair business practice."

"At the outset, we reiterate our belief that airlines should offer a cash refund for all tickets canceled during the coronavirus pandemic, whether the flight is canceled by the airline or traveler," the Democratic lawmakers wrote in a letter sent Wednesday. "... Americans need cash in their pockets during this emergency, and it is unconscionable that airlines are largely refusing to return customers' money on a technicality, even as the industry sits on more than $10 billion in unused travel credits." By law, airlines do not have to issue refunds to passengers who cancel non-refundable tickets. However, the letter noted that many Americans preemptively canceled their flights to protect themselves from COVID, making them ineligible for refunds they would have been entitled to when the airlines later canceled scores of flights due to plummeting travel demand during the pandemic.